The Defense Civilian Workforce - Transformational Changes

Abstract

Today, the DOD and Army civilian workforce is facing complex transformational change. As a result, skepticism and, perhaps, fear may begin to appear to dominate the DOD civilian workforce's thinking as the pace and complexity of the changes move forward. Complex transformational change is very difficult. As Secretary Rumsfeld stated in a September 2001 speech, "Change is hard. It's hard for some to bear, and it's hard for all of us to achieve.". Some speculate that these changes will transform the civilian system, structures and business processes to provide an agile, flexible and innovative civilian workforce and free up resources. Others see the changes creating chaos and an unmanageable state of affairs that brings neither reform nor resources. Using a change management lens of process and communication, this paper will examine the Defense leadership's current and proposed initiatives affecting the Defense civilian workforce to determine whether the transformational changes will be successful. Success is defined as a change process so motivationally powerful that it can overcome bureaucratic inertia and gain a true commitment from the workforce to make the changes work.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 07, 2003
Accession Number
ADA415778

Entities

People

  • Karen Stephenson-tetu

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Business Administration
  • Civilian Personnel
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • Human Resources
  • Law
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Personnel
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Economics
  • Systems Analysis and Design